Computer Science Policies and Advising

General Advising Information

• Why?

The University of Pittsburgh requires advising prior to registration for all undergraduate Arts and Sciences students. Only after an advising session and a subsequent removal of the advising hold by an advisor will students be able to register in any given term.

• When?

Scheduled formal advising sessions occur each Fall and Spring term. Prior to each of these sessions all CS Majors will be notified via email and an online signup form will be posted. Informal (drop-in) advising can be made by appointment at any time. See the Contact links below if you wish to make a drop-in advising appointment.

• Who?

The CS Department offers advising for all Computer Science, Scientific Computing and Bioinformatics majors. Scientific Computing majors may alternatively seek advising in the Mathemetics Department, and Bioinformatics majors may alternatively seek advising in the Biological Sciences Department.

• Details

Specific information for formal advising sessions will be provided each term. See the “CS Self-Advising” link below for information for the current term. Students are encouraged to keep track of their progress and of the requirements they have fulfilled and still need to fulfill. This can be done by checking online information at my.pitt.edu and also by becoming familiar with the graduation requirements. To assist with this, the CS Department has created several documents and has linked to some other informative sites. See the Advising Documents link below.

Current Term Advising Information

Find Enrollment Date and Time

Schedule Advising Appointment

Scheduling for CS Department advising is done via an online appointment scheduling tool. Appointments are 20 minutes long and will be with one of the CS faculty advisors, unless you are a graduating senior, in which case your appointment will be with the program director or program administrator.Several weeks prior to registration, the program director will send an email to all CS majors with a link to the online scheduling software. Please schedule an appointment as soon as possible after receiving the email. You may log in to the site as many times as you wish, and you may change your appointment if you need to do so. However, if you need to reschedule at the last minute, please notify your advisor so she/he will not wait for you. Please note, that failure to attend an advising appointment will result in your advising hold remaining on your account, prohibiting you from registering.

For those studying abroad or on co-op rotation:

Please email the program director or program administrator with the classes you hope to schedule for the following term. Include any other relevant information or questions regarding registration. If you require a permission number, you are still responsible for submitting that request through the permission number request form. Do not wait until the last minute to send this information or you risk your advising hold not being removed in time for your registration date.

Registering for Classes

Do not forget to register!! Here are some ways to make the process easier:

1. Set an alarm reminder for your enrollment appointment time.
2. Download the PeopleSoft mobile app on Google Play or from the App Store.
3. Have your shopping cart loaded and ready to submit prior to your enrollment time.

Utilize the validate feature on PeopleSoft to ensure there are no errors in your shopping cart. Request any necessary permission numbers ahead of time here and have them pre-loaded in your shopping cart so you do not get an error message that prevents you from adding a class.

If you have any problems with registration and you have followed the above steps carefully, please send an email detailing your exact problem to the program director or program administrator as soon as possible.